Let them eat pie.

Welcome to autumn!  We had an unexpected end of summer heatwave.  In fact, the hottest day of the year here was in late September!  Now, though, the days are noticeably getting shorter and cooler.  It's autumn and I have to admit to being a bit excited by it.  I have always loved autumn, and we get some great autumn produce.  We're getting loads of fresh apples, and the girls have settled into their new classes at school and preschool.

Cooler weather means that we can start enjoying all of the autumn food that we haven't eaten in awhile.  Savoury pies are very popular in this house, and make a good warming dinner on a cool, dark evening.  We spent a day making a whole big batch of pies together.  We ate two over the next couple of days, and put the rest in the freezer to pull out later.

We started off by making several batches of pastry.  I have naturally cold hands so I have an advantage at pastry making and am pretty proud of how well it turned out.
For my tips on making perfect pie pastry, click here.

Then we made several types of filling.  We didn't follow any recipes, so I won't give you exact recipes here.  We just made them up based on what we had and what sounded good.

Jared did make one pie with a meaty filling....any guesses what's in it?

The vegetarian pie that we ate first was a mushroom pie.  It had big organic chestnut mushrooms in it along with some other veggies and a home-made gravy.

They were delicious, and the best part is that we still have more pies in the freezer (including a butternut squash pie and a broccoli cheese pie). 

Our Most Delicious Idea Yet

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Some of my ideas in the kitchen turn out better than others. Some days I have great ideas for something to cook or bake, and it just doesn't work. Every once in awhile, though, we have just the right ingredients and a sprinkling of inspiration, and make something truly, mouth-wateringly extraordinary.

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This humble-looking pie is, in my opinion, our most delicious idea yet. So here it is: Plum Crumble Pie.
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Ingredients:
Pie Shell (I cheated and used a pre-made one)
Plums (We used a nice dark purple variety with firm, sweet flesh)
Rochester Organic Mulled Berry Punch
Ground Almonds/Almond Flour
Flaked Almonds
Oats
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Butter (room temperature)
Vanilla Extract
Flour (You can use wheat or white flour, or even an alternative wheat-free flour)
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1. Wash the plums, then halve them and remove the stones (you can leave on the skins). Then cook on a medium heat with a splash of the punch until soft, stirring regularly. [The punch is a mixture of juices and spices that adds a really rich flavour to the plums, but if you can't find Rochester punch or something similar, you can try adding spices to taste and a little juice or water.]
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2. Make a crumble topping. You can find exact recipes for this or play with the proportions, but I tend to just start adding things to the food processor and taste testing it. Mixing it in the food processor blends the butter through it nicely without ruining the consistency by making it too smooth. Add about 3 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 tbsp vanilla extract, as well as a sprinkling of cinnamon. Blend. Taste, and add more liquid/dry ingredients, sugar, etc. if needed. Then hand mix in about 1/2 cup flaked almonds.
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3. Put the fruit in the pie shell, then spread the crumble topping evenly over the entire top. Bake at 180 C (350 F) for about 1/2 hour.
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4. Enjoy! This is delicious served hot with cream, ice cream, or custard, or eaten cold (perhaps with vanilla yogurt for an indulgently delicious breakfast).
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The mixture of the almonds in the crumble topping creates an almost marzipan-y sweetness, but it is offset by the spiciness of the fruit. This is heaven in a pie shell.
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